You can use console.log and see output in the nodebb logs, vscode debugger also works and let's you step through code and see the data. Below is my launch.json file for vscode debugging.

{
	// Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
	// Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
	// For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
	"version": "0.2.0",
	"configurations": [
		{
			"type": "node",
			"request": "launch",
			"name": "NodeBB",
			"skipFiles": [
				"${workspaceFolder}\\node_modules\\**\\*.js",
				"${workspaceFolder}\\src\\promisify.js",
				"<node_internals>/**"
			],
			"program": "${workspaceFolder}\\app.js",
			"runtimeArgs": [
				"--trace-warnings",
				"--stack-trace-limit=200"
			]
		}
	]
}

If you are debugging a plugin/theme in node_modules folder remove the node_modules part from skipFiles

Posting this again https://github.com/NodeBB/nodebb-widget-essentials/commit/d73fdb2d90d6359b22b9d1c50bafb56ac2b0c038 so you can compare your code to a working widget.

@codenamejessica, no worries. When you are building a nodebb theme/plugin for the first time there is definitely a learning curve.

Looks like you got the widget working. The reason it's not showing any users is because you set the data to the field posters but your template is using {{{ each users }}}

They are documented at https://docs.nodebb.org/development/plugins/ and https://docs.nodebb.org/development/widgets/

From what I understand you want to add custom data to the /categories page, you can either build widgets that have this data and place them on the categories page or you can use filter:categories.build server side hook and add that data into templateData and use it in your tpl.

If they are only going to be used on the /categories page then use filter:categories.build if you want to place them on multiple pages build them as widgets.

If you are trying to build a latest topics widget, than you don't need filter:recent.build, just add a new widget. See this commit that adds a new widget in the widget-essentials plugin. https://github.com/NodeBB/nodebb-widget-essentials/commit/d73fdb2d90d6359b22b9d1c50bafb56ac2b0c038. That's all you need to add a new widget, then you can place it on any page you want.

Adding data via filter:recent.build only adds it on the /recent page. NodeBB fires a hook on every page in the form filter:<template_name>.build like filter:recent.build, filter:categories.build, filter:users.build and so on.

Oh that dropdown is in the settings for the markdown plugin at /admin/plugins/markdown, not sure how much work it would be to make it a user setting, @julian ?

The theme used for codeblocks is set on the markdown plugin page.

Do add data for use in template this is what you need to do.

1. in plugin.json add the hook, which you already did.

"hooks": [
		{ "hook": "filter:recent.build", "method": "filterRecentBuild" }
	],

2. in lib/theme.js add the same method filterRecentBuild

library.filterRecentBuild = async (hookData) {
  hookData.templateData.topicsList = [] // fill it with data
  return hookData;
}

Now when you load the /recent page ajaxify.data will have topicsList property. You don't need to do anything in public/codename.js. filter:recent.build is a server side hook, you can't listen to it with hooks.on('filter:recent.build')

Here are couple of things you need to fix, remove lib/theme.js from the scripts block in plugin.json, the scripts block is for client side javascript files.

In your package.json the "main" field should be set to the server side js file, in your case lib/theme.js

Remove the below block from lib/theme.js it's not needed.

require(['hooks'], function (hooks) {
    hooks.on('filter:recent.build', function (hookData) {
        // Ensure topicsList is added to the template context
        if (hookData.templateData) {
            console.log('Recent Build Hook Triggered: Adding topicsList');
            hookData.templateData.topicsList = hookData.templateData.topicsList || [];
        }
    });
});

Remove the "widgets" block from plugin.json, adding new widgets is done with { "hook": "filter:widgets.getAreas", "method": "defineWidgetAreas" }, check out harmony/peace etc they all use that hook.

The From Name field shouldn't be an email address, that can be just the name of your forum. I've made a fix so special characters shouldn't case issues anymore https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/a489abc763d7499721def088e6fe6e5598ee4056.

Try something like

We should probably change to using an address object to avoid issues with From Name having commas or special characters. https://nodemailer.com/message/addresses/

Open that file on your server and change that block of code to the below then restart nodebb and see what it logs in logs/output.log

// NodeMailer uses a combined "from"
data.from = `${data.from_name}<${data.from}>`;
delete data.from_name;
console.log(data.from);
await Emailer.fallbackTransport.sendMail(data);

I have a feeling your from_name has special characters and nodemailer doesn't like that. Try something like this.

Instead of putting the same email in both fields.

Did you console.log the data.from value on this line?

@eeeee https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/89b8de50ee72c1a47ea4ccb21e14c3838b7fd24b this should fix both issues.

@eeeee yeah I have a 3440x1440 screen at 125% dpi, I will take a look.

@eeeee I can't reproduce these issues, can you provide a screenshot/video of the issue?

Move Topic

Delete User

@codenamejessica that works too

Please try with 3.12.1

@codenamejessica thanks for reporting I will publish a patch version to fix that issue.

@PeterJones the issue should be resolved now, there was a nginx rule that needed fixing so it only catches .asp urls. I've also upgraded the forum to our latest release.